


In Truth

by cariandra



Series: The Gift [2]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: AU - Seraphi is still alive when they discover Jupiter, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 20:33:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4277001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cariandra/pseuds/cariandra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It made no sense for Mother to let the recurrence live.  The only possible outcome was disaster.  But when Balem takes the family lessons one step too far Kalique is left to pick up the pieces, and educate Jupiter Jones on what Seraphi Abrasax has planned for her future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Truth

“How many times have you done this?” Jupiter’s resigned question ends Kalique’s current lesson. The genial smile she is always so careful to have in place freezes, surprised at something for the first time since Balem brought the news of their mother’s recurrence over a year ago.

The mystery of why their mother hadn’t had Jupiter killed, or at least removed her to a safe location, was something Balem was actively trying to process. While he focused on Mother’s larger schemes, Kalique chose to research the smaller pieces, like understanding the recurrence slowly being maneuvered for a very recently understood purpose.

Balem refused to leave the idea that Seraphi was merely suffering from one of the melodramatic episodes the Entitled were so prone to. Kalique knew better, knew that their mother was slipping away, understood she had chosen her fate the moment she let Jupiter live. The only option left was to educate the young woman, make her aware of her place in the universe, before the universe decided to claim her. The most important, and delicate matter now, was when it would choose to do so.

“Done what?” the lightness is still there, but the smile slips a bit, now unsure of the direction Jupiter has chosen to take their talk.

“Cleaned up Balem’s mess,” Jupiter’s hunched posture as they walk belies the intensity of her stare into Kalique’s eyes, daring her to deny that this is exactly why she insisted (forced, if she’s being entirely honest) Jupiter visit Cerise after so many weeks of silence, of ignoring her FTL’s, of trying to pretend it hadn’t happened.

Kalique breaks first, looks at the crystal glass in her hand before gently setting it on the tray a SIM offers. She picks up the sheave containing the disturbing news she had received this morning before the SIM returns to stand at a respectful distance behind the pair. Kalique lets Jupiter believe, for the moment, Balem’s behavior is the purpose for this visit. Her answer, when it finally comes, is carefully selected.

“Balem has always lacked…subtlety,” she stops at Jupiter’s snort.

“What he did had _nothing_ to do with subtlety,” Kalique winces at Jupiter’s sharp tone, all hope for friendly pretense gone. “I know I said I wanted the truth, but _fuck_! Did he have to show me? An explanation or even an article on the sheave you gave me would have worked just fine!”

Kalique guides them deeper into the garden, knowing that forcing Jupiter to sit will only bottle up the tense energy she’s been displaying since Maledictes led her into their usual sitting room.

Internally, she agrees with Jupiter. Kalique sees her error now, that it had taken too long for her to explain Regenex, the mystery surrounding Harvests, to show the dark side that accompanies any miracle.

It was understandable that Jupiter had gone to Balem. Young as the woman was, and despite her protestations that she was nothing like their mother, she still possessed the raw ability to look at a person and know what they could do for her. Only one accidental meeting had been enough to tell Jupiter that if she wanted naked honesty, brutal though it may be, Balem was who she should seek.

She also completely agrees that Balem was a complete and utter dick about it. But Jupiter never needs to know that. The appearance of familial harmony is of utmost importance. Something that needs to be impressed upon Jupiter quickly, before the future Kalique suspects is rushing towards them becomes the present. Her harsh words to Balem had been delivered weeks before, privately, when her spies had delivered the news of his actions. What had he been thinking, showing a young tersie something so graphic before she was ready?

“His method was questionable, but you did promise him to honesty,” Kalique’s tone is neutral, the soft undercurrent of amusement she usually portrays notably missing. Any conversation involving Balem is rarely entertaining anymore. Unless Titus is present.

Though for the last five years Titus has been so involved with one of Mother’s new projects he’s stopped answering even her FTL’s. It was another one of those strange occurrences wiggling in the back of Kalique’s brain, waiting on a report from her web of spies.

Jupiter whirls in front of Kalique, abruptly stopping their leisurely stroll through the garden. Calmly, Kalique watches the open hostility on Jupiter’s expression melt into a mournful scowl.

“He forced me to watch an entire Harvest! Not just show me the refinery, or the science behind it, Kalique. He made me watch them go to sleep,” tears slip down Jupiter’s face, mixing with her anger, “made me see children, turned into liquid. And then they just threw them away, like trash, like they meant _nothing_.” Jupiter is outright sobbing, her legs buckling beneath her onto the stones, worn smooth with millennia of Kalique’s pensive walks. How hard must it have been for Jupiter? To sit on her Earth for that long month and pretend nothing was wrong while the revealed fate of her home twisted through her dreams?

Kalique settles to her knees in front of Jupiter, placing a hand on her shoulder as Jupiter tries to stifle her cries behind her palm to keep Kalique’s train of handmaidens from hearing her pain. When her tears finally calm, minutes, hours later, she turns bloodshot eyes to Kalique.

“Is that what you think of me? Just something to be thrown away once you’re done?” her voice is hoarse with tears, thick with the knowledge of what awaits her family.

Not if the sheave in Kalique’s hand is correct.

Kalique opens her mouth to respond, the polite, automatic denial ready on her tongue, but the words won’t come.

Because when she looks at Jupiter, all she sees is her mother, broken, crying after that horrid fight with Balem. The bruises ringing her neck still blooming, her explanation jumbled, but soon easy to comprehend. They’d all been fortunate Seraphi’s servant had walked in when she did.

Kalique knows Balem’s temper better than most. Once Seraphi had managed to confess what they’d been fighting about she was surprised Balem hadn’t snapped sooner. His passions, and obsessions, still ran high, more so with his growing eons. Kalique pushes aside her worry over his growing fixation on Jupiter. That would be a warning for another day.

In that moment, Kalique suddenly understands why her mother didn’t kill Jupiter. Her curious fascination with this creature wearing her mother’s face explodes into an awareness of what her mother intends this woman to be, what future she must have seen when this recurrence was discovered.

Because here, in front of her, is a person who will never think a tersie is something to be thrown away, will never think _any_ living creature is something to be discarded. Now, so clearly, Kalique sees the path Mother has been crafting. Confessing first to Balem, Kalique, then Titus, her changing beliefs. Her isolation, allowing them to interact with this woman, this child, to make them understand why she was valuable.

How foolish could she and Balem have been to believe Mother didn’t know they were contacting her recurrence? Seraphi knew Balem better than she knew herself. She’d known the horror he would engender when Jupiter asked him to see exactly what the family business involved. Knew he would be brutally, effectively, honest.

The denial, when she expresses it, suddenly isn’t a lie, isn’t a group of words to placate a jumpy tersie uncertain of her place in the universe. It is the honest truth, because Kalique understands that very soon, so much sooner than she wants to believe, Jupiter is going to the one making the choices, and she knows the side she wants to be on.

Jupiter sees the truth in Kalique’s eyes, something she’s gotten very good at spotting, and gives a watery smile through her sob-induced headache. They sit on the ground for a few more minutes before Jupiter rises, offers Kalique a hand up, and then brushes the dirt from her jeans.

They walk in a contemplative silence for several minutes before Jupiter once again surprises Kalique with her ability to jump right to the heart of the matter.

“Tell me what’s wrong with your mother.”

It’s Kalique’s turn to stop in her tracks, but the shock turns to an almost panicked feeling at Jupiter’s next demand.

“And tell me what happened with Balem.”

Kalique slowly nods, weighing the option of not telling Jupiter against the truth. Jupiter may be furious with Balem now, but if Kalique declines to answer her question she has no doubt Jupiter will go to him again. She is positive, with a cold certainty, that Jupiter will not survive that discussion.

Kalique has watched the deep slide into his work, into the obsession with everything their mother taught him. Has seen his suppression of that night, of what he nearly did. Once his frantic calls to Seraphi, all unanswered, finally stopped Kalique watched what was left of his happiness shrivel away, leaving a hardened husk of the brother she’d once known. Jupiter forcing that back, without the underlying devotion Seraphi engendered, would be suicidal.

“It happens, sometimes, to an Entitled of my mother’s age,” Kalique begins, “Time is the most precious commodity in the universe, but even the most ancient of us understands that we are not supposed to last forever.”

Jupiter nods with Kalique’s explanation, absorbing information she’s been waiting almost a year to learn.

“Some members of the First Estate, those that survive that long at least, begin to realize that their lives have come to their natural end,” Kalique fights the burning in her chest, forcing her voice to be even, as she finally admits what she has known is coming for centuries, “and make preparations.”

Jupiter sucks in a breath. “And I’m part of those preparations,” she states.

“Yes,” confirms Kalique.

“Oh god,” Jupiter has that breathy panicked sound Kalique hasn’t heard since the first time she was brought to Cerise. A brief image of a wide eyed Jupiter flashes through her mind. The dazzled curiosity had been fascinating for Kalique to see on such a familiar, yet alien face.

Kalique extends the sheave she has been carrying to Jupiter. She directs her to pull up the message Maledictes had woken Kalique so early this morning to see. Now is the time to make this recurrence aware of her larger purpose. It helps that Seraphi has finally played her hand.

Jupiter scans the text, then looks up from the sheave with an annoyed head tilt.

“All I see is a bunch of legal jumbo.”

Kalique smiles understandingly at Jupiter’s frustration. It still takes a dozen lawyers and Maledictes to make sense of half the paperwork and forms Kalique is required to seal on a weekly basis.

“My mother recently increased the size of the trust allotted to her recurrence, and included certain requirements if her children are to receive, and keep, any inheritance.”

Jupiter’s brow furrows as she processes Kalique’s words. “What requirements?” she warily asks.

_Clever girl_ , Kalique silently cheers Jupiter on, the pride rising at Jupiter's quickly growing ability to grab the important facts in a conversation. If things were to go the way she suspected it would be even more important for Jupiter to continue these lessons.

“If her heirs wish to receive, and keep, any inheritance they must acknowledge that her recurrence, upon claiming her title, will be the First Primary of House Abrasax. She will also hold all final decision making power in any direction Abrasax Industries should choose to go in.”

The color drains from Jupiter’s face in a rather alarming fashion. Kalique expects she will faint and is surprised when Jupiter not only stays conscious, but also standing.

“Your mother is going to die so that I can take her place?”

Kalique hides the wince Jupiter’s words cause. It was something that stayed in the back of her mind, like a cat stalking its prey, waiting for the day it could pounce. She feels the claws sinking into her heart, the black pit of helplessness threatening to swallow her whole. The urge to run from this conversation, to send Jupiter home and pretend she is nothing more than a passing fancy overcomes her.

However, the time to continue ignoring her mother’s intentions is long past. Not when Mother has laid so many threads, made it bare to the universe what she intends.

“I now believe that is her intention.”

Heat floods Jupiter’s face and chest as she takes a sharp inhale, “That’s why Balem offered to show me that Harvest. He wants me to abdicate. So she won’t follow through with her plan.” A real smile blooms on Kalique’s face as her student finally applies the teachings she has been slipping into their conversations.

“That seems to sums up his intent.”

“How did Balem find out about the will before you?”

The annoyance from that morning resurges briefly, her memory of asking Maledictes that very same question coming to mind.

“That has yet to be determined,” she brushes Jupiter’s question aside. Jupiter has not come nearly far enough to learn the intricacies of spying on one’s own family.

Jupiter stops again, her hands on her hips as she contemplates a statue to mask her whirling thoughts, pieces slipping into place, the big picture finally starting to take shape. There was a second part to her question, one she is waiting for Kalique to address.

“Tell me what happened between your mother and Balem.”

Kalique slips her fingers over a bright blue flower, the orange pollen staining her skin, as she pulls the memory, arguably one of her worst (which is saying a lot) to the front of her mind.

“How much of an understanding have you gained of my mother’s relationship with Balem?”

“You mean besides the gross part?”

Kalique gives Jupiter a sharp warning glance, not in the mood to try and once again explain why those sorts of familial restrictions no longer apply in the universe she has recently joined. Jupiter sighs as she drops yet another subject and sits on a nearby floating bench, slipping into the contemplative expression she usually wears during these sorts of discussions.

“After my _lovely_ ,” the sarcasm is strong in Jupiter’s voice, “conversation with your brother last month I’m extremely sure Seraphi designed Balem to be a business genius, and only that, based on his _major_ lack of people skills. She pretty much taught him that they were going to rule the universe.” Jupiter still has her reservations about the designer children, but it is another topic Kalique has made clear she just needs to accept. Her voice turns more academic as she continues the recitation of her recently learned facts.

“She raised him, and you, to believe the Entitled are better than anyone else,” Kalique gives a small nod in agreement, “that they’re better than anything else living. Over the last 30,000 years they’ve absorbed almost all other major Regenex producers and created an unprecedented monopoly for the higher purity grades.”

“Some time during the last 5,000 years Seraphi stopped being an active participant in the Industry and has mostly slipped from the public eye. Balem is now considered the de facto leader of Abrasax Industries, with you being a close second if he’s unavailable,” Kalique smiles at Jupiter’s blatant compliment but doesn’t interrupt. “Titus is still too young to be considered a major player in any industry dealings.”

“Rumors have been intensifying since an unspecified incident several centuries ago. Seraphi hasn’t made a public appearance since, and the general news feeds commonly report that there is well hidden discord in your House.” Jupiter pauses to take a breath. She’s reached the part of her recitation that has her personally concerned.

“Since my existence was officially leaked to the Orousian Commonwealth last week rumors have gone through the roof. Most report that something serious happened between Balem and Seraphi. Whatever it was is believed to have significantly shifted the power balance, especially considering that I was allowed to live in ignorance, and even protected, on Earth for several years before being introduced to the ‘family.’ I’m guessing there was a pretty nasty showdown between Seraphi and Balem about her plans?” Jupiter leans forward and raises an eyebrow, waiting for Kalique to fill in the holes in her story.

Kalique doesn’t mince words.

“Balem nearly killed her. Would have, if her servant hadn’t walked in. It was sheer luck the splice had the wits to run and send me a personal FTL instead of contacting the Aegis.”

“Jesus,” Jupiter breathes. The sheave clatters to the ground as Jupiter covers her mouth with her hands. Obstructing the investigation of potential murder aside (that is totally not the worst thing she’s learned about this family) Jupiter is honestly horrified at Kalique’s confession. Balem was definitely a little unbalanced, but nothing in Jupiter’s arsenal of Entitled lessons had prepared her for that.

The blue petals crush under Kalique’s fingers as she tries to keep her composure. She soon abandons the plant and chooses instead to sit on the bench facing Jupiter, carefully laying her hands on top of her crossed legs, and continues.

“She tried to tell Balem that she was wrong, that she wanted to stop the Harvests, find an alternative. I believe he lost control when she told him, and I’m using her words here, not mine, that she hated her life and that it would never matter more than another.”

Jupiter’s eyes widen as she nearly jumps off the bench. “He said that to me! Something like ‘some lives will always matter more than others’, when he was forcing me to watch those machines under his throne room.”

Kalique’s expression shows no surprise at Balem’s words during his unfortunate actions. It was a lesson all Entitled learned at a young age to ensure the proper balance of the universe.

Jupiter rests her arms on her knees, watching a fat, lazy bee fly between the flowers near her feet. Something isn’t right, there’s something Kalique isn’t telling her, or something Kalique doesn’t understand herself.

Balem had been cruel, had chosen to answer her question in the most basic way possible, but it hadn’t felt malicious. It felt more like a teacher showing their student a harsh lesson, a warning to not continue if one lacked the spine. That eerily calm façade he’d worn had slowly chipped away as her horror grew, his anger not at her reaction, but her disgust. No, not her disgust.

_Her rejection._

He’d wanted her to understand, to tell him what he was doing was right. Because Seraphi, the person who had spent his whole life reinforcing the reason for his existence, had invalidated everything he stood for. His actions reeked of a child desperate for his mother’s approval, of the one thing Seraphi had accidentally taught him was more important than all else. And if she intended Jupiter to be her replacement then Balem wanted her to be cut from the same mold.

“He thinks she hates him.”

Kalique refuses to twist her hands together at Jupiter’s statement, but Jupiter doesn’t stop, having finally solved puzzle she’s been fleshing out over the last year.

“Balem thinks Seraphi hates him, regrets his creation. He panicked when he heard Seraphi was changing her will, because it confirms Seraphi made a mistake. Her children, _he_ , isn’t good enough to rule in her stead, because they _were a mistake_.”  Jupiter suddenly stops when she realizes the implication of her words.  How could she just blurt that out in front of Kalique?

Kalique hides her wince, and shakes her head at Jupiter to signal that she understands the words weren’t meant to cause pain.  It’s been a long time since she understood what was causing Balem’s mental spiral.  What she’s chosen to close her eyes to in an effort to protect her own sanity.  Balem may have been created to please only Mother, but Kalique had been gifted with farther reaching purposes.  It made bearing her mother’s hatred, in spite of the obligatory love one felt for their children, only a little easier.  Balem’s perfect faith in their mother had never wavered, but Kalique prided herself on being the more pragmatic one.  No one was perfect, least of all Mother.

“Yes,” she finally agrees, “and he now believes, as do I, that she means to replace herself with you.”

Jupiter catches the implied threat in the statement, and makes a decision. People have been deciding the direction of her life for far too long.

“It’s time for me to meet your mother.”

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is based off early productions leaks that made it pretty clear Seraphi was supposed to be alive in earlier versions of the script.
> 
> Instead of taking this in the direction that Seraphi will stop at nothing to kill Jupiter I decided to go another: What if Seraphi sees Jupiter as her second chance? And how will her children react?
> 
> I have a few other snippets written, but this one is one of my favorites. I find Kalique to be a twisty person to write. She's the perfect embodiment of what I imagine most Entitled are like. I also totally think she's the one who picks up the pieces when her brothers do something stupid. Someone's gotta keep the family in line when Seraphi is out of play, and neither Titus or Balem are up for the task.


End file.
